Tom's a bully, and he picks a target and makes their life miserable.
But bullies need to realize that someday there might be some feedback.
Tom Fennis stood on his porch leaning against the rail, watching the movers at the Donahue house across the street. They were moving somewhere out of town. And that pissed Tom off, a lot. Mark had been his favorite target this past school year. Now he’d have to find someone else to hassle when school resumed in August. He watched Mark load some stuff into their SUV and return to the house.
The slam of the moving van doors startled Tom, and he watched as it slowly drove down Grove Street and disappeared around the curve. He turned back to look at the Donahue house and was surprised to see Mark standing about halfway up the walk. He glared at him, and made a move to the steps leading down from his porch.
“What the fuck do you want, faggot?”
“I just wanted to say goodbye, asshole.”
“What the fuck did you call me?”
“Asshole. Wanna do something about it?”
Tom grinned as he stepped down to the walk and slowly walked toward Mark. He knew that he had an advantage because he was both bigger than Mark and Mark never fought back whenever he slugged him or tripped him or slammed him against his locker. What gave him an even bigger advantage was that his dad was Leonard Fennis, the Deputy Sheriff for Collingswood Township. Tom had used the fact that he was the Sheriff’s son very effectively in middle school and now in high school to threaten his targets. That combined with the pervasive no-snitching rule among students meant that if he was careful Tom could get away with being the school bully all the way through his senior year.
Mark just stood there, watching him. As Tom got halfway there he rushed Mark, planning to body-block him to the concrete walk. At the last second Mark feinted, moving to his right, and Tom couldn’t make a correction. Somehow Mark tripped him, and it was Tom who found himself slammed into the concrete. His face bounced on the hard surface, chin and nose first, and it hurt like hell. He could feel the blood running from his nose, and he could taste blood in his mouth from where he’d bitten his tongue. Before he could move to turn over or get up Mark jumped on his back, knees first into his kidneys, and it took his breath away.
Tom was in real pain. He’d never felt anything like it before. He started to cry, he couldn’t help it. He felt Mark get off his back and roll him over so he was face up. Through his tears he watched Mark take pictures.
“I guess you couldn’t do something about it after all, could you. It’s not very much fun, is it. So thanks much for letting me give you a little feedback for everything you did to me this year.” Mark waved his camera and grinned. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy your next three years at Collingswood High.”
Mark turned and walked back across the street. He leaned against their SUV and watched Tom as he struggled to his feet and held his shirt against his nose and mouth. He stumbled up the steps onto his porch and into his house.
After a few minutes Mark’s mom and dad came out and locked the front door of their former home. As they walked to the SUV his mom patted the ‘For Sale’ sign at the front curb.
“Ready to go, Mark?”
“Yeah, Mom, I am like totally ready to go.”
As they drove away Mark’s dad glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “I saw Tom Fennis standing on his porch earlier. Did you walk over and say goodbye to him?”
“Yeah, I did. And I gave him a little feedback to help him out at school next semester.”
This story and the included images are Copyright © 2011 by Colin Kelly (colinian).
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